NYCPHP Meetup

[Justin Dearing]

My $2*10^-2,
Zend PHP5 certification is $125. For $165 you get the self study lit that
comes with a PDF, 10 online practice tests, and a voucher for the exam.
Passing the exam gets you listed in the zend yellow pages, and you can join
an exclusive group on linked in.

I took and passed the test on Monday with minimal preparation. I have not
written PHP regularly since 2007, but wrote an entire media sharing portal
in PHP for a site that never launched before then. Since then all my PHP
hacking has been for writing sample applications for talks I gave at LIPHP
and a little bit of hacking on an open source project called
http://www.andromeda-project.org/. I've been a full time .NET developer
since then, and thats all been back end ETL coding. So I am by no means a
PHP expert, and I'm a bit rusty.

On the brainbench side of things, I took the unix and apache brainbench when
I got hired as a junior unix and as/400 operator a few years back, I passed
both without special preparation.

Overall I think the problem with PHP certification is there is no advanced
certification. Cisco has the CCIE. Microsoft has the MSCE and MCPD. Netware
has (and I assume still has) the CNE. Redhat has advanced certification
beyond the RHCE. I have something to show companies that I've mastered the
PHP basics. There's no formal certification I can obtain to say I have
advanced knowledge of PHP.

Regards,

Justin Dearing


On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 8:32 PM, Ben Sgro <ben at projectskyline.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Typically, I've seen this website used by large corporations to sift
> through candidates - I've had HR or a HH
> require a test from this website be taken to progress to the next stage of
> the interview. I always felt it was
> a bit *silly* - The type of organization that includes this as part of
> their metrics is typically NOT the
> type of place I want to work.
>
> A search of PHP from brainbench returned:
> CGI Scripting    Available    Plan    Learn    Test    $49.95
> MySQL 3.23 Administration    Available    Plan    Learn    Test    $49.95
> PHP 4    Available    Plan    Learn    Test    $49.95
> PHP 5    Available    Plan    Learn    Test    $49.95
>
> Personally, I'd focus on a Zend test, or a college course. I obviously
> cannot comment on the quality of this test since
> I dont know if its the same as the ones I've taken or not.
>
> Both sites look similar:
> http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/common/testcenter/taketest.xml?testId=2523
> http://www.w3schools.com/cert/cert_php.asp
>
>
> Anyways, to the point, if your looking for a job at one of the companies
> that may employ this test,
> great - that might look good for you.
>
> I don't think it can hurt you - good luck w/whatever you decide to do! It
> always a good idea to be
> sharpening your skill set.
>
> - Ben
>
>
> Michele Waldman wrote:
>
>> Found it.
>>
>> This was a website that I was told was being recognized by some employers
>> as
>> verifying experience.
>>
>> I don't know how much stock I'd put in it though.
>>
>> http://www.brainbench.com/
>>
>> Michele
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org [mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org]
>> On
>> Behalf Of Michele Waldman
>> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 7:41 PM
>> To: 'NYPHP Talk'
>> Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] W3 Schools?
>>
>> What always got me in the door was a Computer Science degree from
>> UC-Berkeley.
>>
>> That seemed to help.  As an employer, I'd be looking for a combination of
>> education and number of years of direct experience.  Five years is
>> considered an even exchange for an education by some employers.
>>
>> There was a different website and no one I either met or heard about had
>> used their test results as a way to document their knowledge.  I may have
>> heard this from a headhunter.  From what I understood, it actually worked.
>>
>> As an employer, I would put much stock in it.
>>
>> But, if I can remember the website, I'll forward the link.
>>
>> Michele
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org [mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org]
>> On
>> Behalf Of Leam Hall
>> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 4:49 PM
>> To: NYPHP Talk
>> Subject: [nycphp-talk] W3 Schools?
>>
>> Anyone have any experience with the W3 Schools tutorials and
>> Certification? The site has a lot of tutorials and look decently well
>> written. Testing for a cert is $75, and I'm not sure if it's going to affect
>> any hiring decisions but it does let us "externally motivated" folks test
>> ourselves against a measurable standard.
>>
>>        http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
>>
>> Since I'm not yet in the PHP Rock Star ranks, do you think this might
>> help?
>>
>> Leam
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